IPP Enlight Renewable Energy has completed a US$773 million debt financing for its Country Acres solar-plus-storage project located near Sacramento, California, US.
Country Acres will have 403MW of solar PV combined with 688MWh of energy storage capacity and is expected operational in the second half of 2026.
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The debt financing package consists of US$776 million of construction loans.
Enlight, through its subsidiary Clēnera Holdings, secured construction financing commitments with a consortium of four banks, including BNP Paribas Securities Corp, Crédit Agricole, Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking, and Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale (Nord/LB).
Once the project is operational, the construction loan is expected to convert into a US$376 million term loan.
As our colleagues at PV-Tech reported, the project has a 30-year solar generation busbar power purchase agreement (PPA) and a 20-year energy storage busbar PPA with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD).
SMUD says that an important part of the project was Enlight adhering to its ‘Principles for Development’.
This includes:
“Minimising impacts to sensitive biological, cultural and tribal resources; inclusion of agricultural practices such as sheep grazing, and pollinator habitat; minimising ground disturbance; incorporation of sustainable life cycle management for construction and operation materials and wastes;”
“Engagement with local workforce and addressing workforce disparity gaps for historically underserved communities; and sourcing materials from companies with a human rights policy and statement of supply chain ethics commitment as part of the development, construction and operation of the project.”
The utility also claimed that construction of the project is expected to contribute over US$41 million to the local economy and support more than 360 jobs during development, with approximately 40 local jobs annually.
Enlight has been working on a string of projects. In December 2024, the company secured a US$550 million financing for the 290MWdc/940MWh solar-plus-storage Roadrunner project near Tucson, Arizona.
The company is also working on the 600MW/1,900MWh Snowflake project and the 1,211MW/824MWh CO Bar project, both located in Arizona.
Enlight also has plans to construct the 128MWdc/400MWh Quail Ranch project in New Mexico, US. The company says its US revenue base is expected to reach US$195-207 million annually after the projects are completed.
The IPP says that construction on Country Acres has begun, and all procurement contracts have been signed.
SMUD has a goal of eliminating 100% of its greenhouse gas emissions from its electric generation by 2030.
In its 2023 Zero Carbon Plan progress report, the utility detailed that it added 1,000MW of renewable energy to its energy supply over the course of 12 years.
The largest amount of this supply was made up of solar, with 442MW, wind followed with 378MW.
SMUD’s report also included an analysis of long-duration energy storage (LDES) projects.
Regular readers of Energy-Storage.news may remember it for being in the LDES news headlines in the past. In 2022, ESS Inc, the ‘All-iron’ flow battery manufacturer, which recently saw its CEO resign after experiencing slower-than-expected growth, made a multi-year agreement with SMUD to deploy up to 200MW/2,000MWh of ESS’ flow battery technology in its service area.
